Cake poppin!

Most people out there will have seen these beauties floating around the interweb. cake pops!

sexy tupperware right?

I got into making these bad boys around christmas time. Me and the boyfriend were going to his brothers house for christmas dinner and I wanted to make desserts. They have kids so I wanted to make something fun and kid-friendly when I stumbled upon these!

They weren't all lopsided

Christmas tree cake pops! I thought they were adorable and they looked fairly easy on the website.

You bake a cake (doesn't matter what shape tin you use) mash it up in a bowl when its cooled down and mix in some frosting (Betty crocker fudge frosting works a treat). roll it into balls and pop it in the freezer to firm up, then stick a stick in it dip it in chocolate and decorate!

For christmas tree cake pops all you do different is make the balls cone shaped rather then ball shaped and use white chocolate with green food colouring to cover them in. It may look like I made fancy spikes on it to look more like a tree but in actual fact the white chocolate was difficult to spread and did this because it didn't want to behave.

Now you can buy cake pop makers but they make very different types of cake pops then what I make. if you use the cake pop maker you make perfectly round cakes that you can then cover and decorate.

I prefer the handmade version. much more satisfyingly gooey and delicious.

Needless to say, these beautiful desserts went down amazingly with the kids and even more so with the adults! and then I was hooked on making them! since the appearance of this box of goodies

Christmas trees!

I have made another batch using milk chocolate (the picture at the top). And then two more various batches that I wrapped up and gave to friends who then treated me like a magical chocolate queen

wrapped up!

The wrapping by the way was incredibly easy. On amazon I was shopping for lollipop sticks for the pops when I saw that for £3.65 I could buy not only 50 cake pop sticks but also 50 cellophane bags to put them in and 50 multicoloured ties to do up the bags! Cannot for the life of me remember the shop on amazon that does it so I cant link it here but I am sure you can find it yourself :)

I do recommend making cake pops but I will give you a few hints here to make it easier for you.

1. DO NOT BURN THE CAKE. This only happened to me with one batch but it makes everything much more difficult

2. DO NOT BE IMPATIENT. Let the cake cool properly before mashing it. Also let the cake/frosting-mash cool in the freezer for AT LEAST 2 hours. If you take it out before because you are impatient and try and roll it into balls you will end up with chocolatey hands and no chocolate balls.

3. NEVER USE WHITE CHOCOLATE. Yes it looks pretty but it takes ages to spread on the pops as it doesn't melt properly so you cant just dip it in the chocolate you actually have to spread it. then the pops start to melt and you have cakey chocolate and its an absolute nightmare.

4. understand that even one batch of cake pops makes a lot. I made one cake (two cake tins enough to make one two layered cake) and one tub of frosting and I made 35 pops. they aren't tiny either. make sure you have room in the fridge.

Happy baking!

Love Frankles

xxxx

Jumping in the sea.

There is a little tradition at St Andrews university called the may dip. all students who have made academic misdemeanours (traditional ones such as academic incest or wearing your gown wrong) are cursed to fail their degree unless they complete the dip.
In my four years at St Andrews I have never done the dip yet, and for good reason. It involves going down to the north sea and running in at dawn, completely submerging yourself into the icy water and emerging curse-free.
So as this was my last year at university I had to do it this time round, and oh god it was far worse then I ever could have imagined.

Me and my friend hannah drove up to the beach at around 5am. It was already packed, people arriving left right and centre in various states of sobriety and undress. I had the great luck of doing the dip sober as alcohol is not a good idea for me at the moment so I didn't have the courage or the alcohol blanket of my fellow dippers. As we walked towards the beach I began to get more and more nervous. We got out of our clothes and started walking towards the sea. Very quickly we sped up and started to run so we wouldn't lose nerve.
Running
My heart was pounding.
Running
The sea approaches quickly looking deceptively calm for something so evil.
Running
And then my toes hit the ocean. It doesn't even feel cold it just feels sharp, someone stabbing my feet.
I've been running pretty fast by this point so my momentum keeps me going as my legs slowly get swallowed up by what feels like ice shards and knives mixed together. When the water hits my chest I stop breathing. By this point we can't run any further as our legs have seized up from the cold. So we duck down to submerge ourselves as much as possible and turn back.
My legs are spasming and I cant breathe but as I move out of the water the air feels warm on my skin and that makes me start running again. At first it feels like I'm wading through thick chocolate but as I get further out it gets easier and I make it back up the beach and then collapse next to my clothes.
Me and hannah just look at each other with a combination of relief for doing it and pain from the cold.
I dry my frozen body off and try and rub some feeling back into my legs with a towel.
We drive back to my house (at this point its around 5.40am) and sit on towels on my sofa with some hot chocolate. We say goodnight and I go have a shower to defrost my still frozen body.
I get into bed shivering for about 2 hours. And then, finally, I drift off to sleep.

And that was my wonderful story of the time I jumped in the sea. Although I am glad I did it nothing will ever make me do that again. Waking up that morning was the worst thing in the world. I was already feeling sick but my morning jump had made me feel like I needed my inhaler for the first time in three years. So excellent timing all round but I'm going to spend the next few days in bed recovering.
Goodbye all I shall see you after my mini hibernation

Love Frankles
xxxx

Proud yet frozen solid.